Acquisition

Pearson PLC
08 August 2006


8 August 2006


PEARSON ACQUIRES MERGERMARKET:
ADDS NEW FINANCIAL CONTENT AND SERVICES TO THE FT GROUP


Pearson, the international education and information company, today announced
the acquisition of the Mergermarket Group for £101m (net of cash retained in the
business).

Mergermarket is a highly customer-focused financial information company which
combines historical news and data with proprietary, forward-looking insights and
intelligence. It provides this information electronically to financial
institutions, corporations and their advisers, becoming part of their customers'
daily workflow.

Its flagship product, mergermarket, couples detailed databases of transactions
and third party news sources with early-stage intelligence on potential
corporate activity generated by 160 M&A journalists in 31 countries. Its
customers - which include 29 of the world's top 30 investment banks, 18 of the
top 20 law firms and 25 of the top 30 private equity houses - use this
information to generate ideas and new business opportunities.

Building on the successful mergermarket model, the company has launched a series
of new services including Debtwire for traders of distressed and high-yield
debt, dealReporter for merger arbitrageurs and Wealthmonitor for private
bankers. It has a strong record of successful product launches and a healthy
pipeline of further innovative new services to be launched over the next few
years.

Founded in 2000, mergermarket's sales have grown very rapidly and its
subscription model produces high renewal rates (currently well over 95%),
reliable revenue streams and excellent cash conversion. The acquisition is
expected to enhance Pearson's adjusted earnings per share in 2007, its first
full year and return on invested in capital in 2008.

"Mergermarket builds its products around its customers, creating unique,
indispensable content that becomes part of their daily lives. It has grown
rapidly, demonstrating its ability to build new services around a highly
successful business model, and it has an excellent team of people who we are
delighted to welcome on board," said Rona Fairhead, chief executive of the
Financial Times Group.

"For the FT Group, it adds proprietary content, a premium customer base,
reliable growth from new revenue sources and attractive financial
characteristics. We see opportunities to connect mergermarket and the FT Group,
from the Financial Times and FT.com to our specialist financial magazines and
Interactive Data Corporation. These would include using existing FT Group
information to develop new products, developing advertising and sponsorship
revenues and sharing technology capabilities."

Mergermarket will continue to be led by its current management team including
Caspar Hobbs, CEO; Charlie Welsh, Editor-in-Chief; Gawn Rowan Hamilton, CFO; and
Richard Hall, managing director for dealReporter and Debtwire.

Caspar Hobbs, CEO of mergermarket, said: "The employees of mergermarket have
worked passionately and tirelessly over the last seven years to create a truly
global business. Their commitment has been extraordinary and, as a result, so
has our success. We have ambitious plans to build our business even further and
I can think of no better partner for us than the FT Group."

Ends

For more information:

Pearson
Luke Swanson / Simon Mays-Smith
[phone]

FT Group
Joanna Manning-Cooper
[phone]



                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange